Torture
Thud!
In the end, Lü Bu and his men seized me and threw me into a cell. Beyond the heavy prison door, Lü Bu's booming laughter rang out.
"Keh-heh-heh... So this is how it ends for you. Know your place, you lowly eunuch. How dare you raise a hand against Lord Dong?"
"I never realized your loyalty to Dong Zhuo ran quite so deep, Lü Bu. Only a few days ago you were ready to cut me down rather than betray Ding Yuan."
"Silence! The jailer who searched you says you're no eunuch at all. What exactly is your relationship with Chosun?"
"..."
Here we go again. He'd been briefly reassured when he thought I was a eunuch, and now that my true nature had been exposed, he was grilling me about Chosun like a jealous husband in the grip of a full-blown fit.
"I'd like to know where she is and what she's doing myself. You're a busy man — why don't you go handle your business?"
"That composure of yours won't last long. You there — prepare the instruments of torture at once. I will conduct the interrogation myself."
"..."
Torture? Surely he didn't mean the barbaric kind — binding a man hand and foot, racking his legs, searing him with heated irons?
"Keh-heh... And you think that would be all? Since you're no eunuch, so much the better. Once you watch a man get ripped out by the root right before your eyes, you'll regret every reckless thought you ever had about Chosun down to your bones."
"W-what are you going to rip out? Look, I'm already sentenced to death — is that really necessary? Lord Lü? Lü Bu! Hey, Lü Bu, you son of a bitch, don't you walk away from me!"
But Lü Bu never even glanced back. He left with his shoulders shaking with laughter. For someone who looked every inch the cool, indifferent bad boy, he sure could be petty.
"Nngh... nngh..."
"...?"
I wasn't the only one locked in this cell. A woman had been dragged in ahead of me and dumped on the floor like a sack of cargo, lying there and moaning in pain.
Xiahou Yuan, courtesy name Miaocai. Cao Cao's cousin — and the woman he had sent to assassinate Dong Zhuo.
So that was why the Seven-Star Sword event never triggered. The developers had decided to honor the historical record this way instead.
Her palace-maid robes had been stripped away; she wore nothing but underclothes, and her body was a mass of blood. With Lü Bu it had ended at disarmament, but Dong Zhuo — enraged beyond reason — had beaten her senseless with those pumpkin-sized fists of his.
What kind of man pounds a little thing like her until she blacks out? Her underclothes had ridden up, baring the gaunt flesh of her thighs; I covered her with a scrap of straw matting, pity stirring despite myself.
Would she face the same brutal torture I was about to receive? But she had already named her master on the spot. What was left to investigate?
The bruises had ruined her looks for now, but she was a strikingly beautiful woman. The soldiers of the Imperial Guard would put her through every kind of sexual torment imaginable.
And after that? Until the day of her execution, she would almost certainly be reduced to a living doll for the jailers to use as they pleased.
So. What. Of. It? If it hadn't been for her, I might still have had a chance.
Because of this worthless little wretch stealing my ultimate item — the Seven-Star Sword — everything had fallen apart and I'd ended up with nothing.
"Are you there?"
"...?"
Then a clear, cool voice cut through my resentment toward Xiahou Yuan and melted it away like snow. I went at once to the tiny air hole set high in the cell wall.
"Chosun? How did you get here?"
"Did you truly think I wouldn't know? All of Luoyang is in an uproar."
I couldn't see her face, but it was unmistakably Chosun. I was nearly out of my mind with relief — but I had to stay calm. She was almost certainly furious.
"Haa... I'm sorry. But this wasn't my fault. I don't know if you've heard, but an assassin Cao Cao sent interfered midway, and—"
"I heard it from His Majesty. She entered disguised as a palace maid and stayed for several days, did she not? Why did you not tell me something so important?"
"I didn't know either, so what was I supposed to do? Of course I was suspicious, but she showed no intention of reporting anything to Dong Zhuo, so I figured nothing would come of it. If I'd known it was Xiahou Yuan, I never would have left her at the Emperor's side—"
"And how did you know her name?"
"Huh? Ah... the truth is, she was the one who tore off Liu Bei's face wrapping at the martial arts tournament. Of course I only remembered that after everything had already gone to hell. Heh..."
"This is no time for laughter! Dong Zhuo is in a towering rage. He is turning Luoyang upside down hunting for Cao Cao. The only reason your own sentence has been delayed even briefly is thanks to that."
"A waste of effort. Cao Cao will have prepared his escape long ago. There's no way he's still in Luoyang."
"..."
Chosun fell silent for a moment. Fair enough. She had even lent me Wang Yun's treasured sword and entrusted me with a great task — and I hadn't even managed to make an attempt. How absurd must that feel?
"Chosun? You're angry, aren't you?"
"Why would I be angry?"
"Don't lie. Even I think this is ridiculous — how must you feel? Maybe Dong Zhuo simply isn't fated to die yet."
"You can still speak so lightly after things have come to this? Haa... What did they say they would do to you?"
"Lü Bu was practically giddy. Once he found out I wasn't a eunuch, he said he'd interrogate me personally and play every kind of game with my cock."
"..."
Chosun went quiet again. Maybe the joke had gone too far. Using a word that direct — cock — really hadn't been the right call.
"Chosun? I only meant to lighten the mood a little with a bit of humor, since things seemed so grim—"
A soft sniffle...
"...?"
But wait — that wasn't it. She wasn't angry at my choice of words. I pressed my ear to the earthen wall at once and asked her.
"Chosun? You're not crying, are you?"
"Why would I shed tears for no reason?"
"Well, because I was stupid enough to fail the mission—"
"Even if you failed, who would blame you for it? Haa... You really do say nothing but things that show how little you understand a person's heart."
"..."
Her voice had been trembling the entire time. It wasn't the Beauty Scheme. It wasn't some polished line meant to win me over.
It was simply a fragile sigh offered up to a loyal subject who had tried to strike down a traitor in her place. Something tightened in my chest, and I slid down the wall until I was sitting with my back against it.
"It'll work out somehow."
"Work out somehow? What is supposed to work out? That man Lü Bu is blinded by jealousy and means to destroy you. You never should have shown yourself before him in the first place..."
"Chosun? Can't you just scold me and lecture me the way you always do? When you suddenly act like this, I don't know how to handle it..."
"Where is the poison? The jailers will have searched you."
"I hid it well when I came in. They were probably so shocked to find I still had a cock that they never thought to look that carefully."
"Jokes to the very end. Take that poison at once."
"Right now? Lü Bu won't be back for quite a while yet."
"It must be finished before resolve weakens. Swallow it here and now."
"What is this... I understand you want to destroy the evidence, but I need a little time to prepare myself—"
"Who said anything about your resolve? I don't know what I myself might do — that is why you must swallow it this instant!"
"..."
I had completely misunderstood. What Chosun feared was not that, given time, reason would return to me and I would name her and Wang Yun to save my own life.
What she didn't trust was herself. If, for example, I failed to take the poison before Lü Bu returned, she might find herself standing before him without even realizing it, begging for my life.
"That won't happen, so stop worrying and go back. His Majesty must be terrified. Especially with both a eunuch and a palace maid involved in an assassination — Dong Zhuo's suspicions will be anything but mild. Go straight back to Lord Wang Yun and prepare to protect the Emperor."
"Even now, all you can think of is His Majesty. How much more do you intend to shame me?"
"The fact that you care this much already moves me more than enough. So won't you go? I don't want you to see me break down and weep. Let me be, to the very last moment, a loyal subject of Han who faces death with dignity."
"..."
There was no answer. Only the sound of fabric stirring in the late-autumn wind that had grown a little colder.
Or perhaps it wasn't only the fabric that was trembling.
Whoooosh...
The night wind blew. Even without calling out, I knew Chosun was gone.
To say I wasn't sad would be a lie. To claim I felt no fear would be pure bluster.
And yet I couldn't deny the warmth gathering in one corner of my chest. That someone truly grieved for my death and ached for me — that alone was the surest proof I had ever lived in this place, the most certain memory of all.
So take heart. What's done is done.
Sitting here crushed changes nothing. So hurry and—
"That woman from before?"
"...?"
This world wouldn't even grant me the luxury of sentiment. When I lifted my head, Xiahou Yuan had somehow come to her senses and was creeping toward me, inch by inch across the floor.